Related Articles

The coalition would also restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission, take workplace laws back to the sensible centre, while substantially reducing red and green tape by introducing a "one stop shop" for environmental approvals.

"You should only have to run the gauntlet once, you should not have to run the gauntlet again and again and again," he said.

It would also closely work with the mining sector through a resource advisory council that will meet regularly with senior ministers.

Anglo American chief executive Mark Cutifani earlier told the conference there was a disconnect between the industry and its political leaders because they "didn't understand or didn't care".

"While I can forgive ignorance, I cannot forgive the class warfare tactics used to split communities as the facts were lost in a sea of rhetoric focussed on a few high profile individuals," he said.

"That's not the Australian way."

But federal resources minister Gary Gray said he was confident Australia would remain a major supplier of metal and minerals commodities, especially to south east Asia.

"On the demand side the long term fundamentals remain unchanged," the minister said.

China, Japan, South Korea and India would remain big consumers of commodities, he said, with demand in China alone expected to be the equivalent of building eight Chicagos and eight New Yorks over the next 30 to 40 years.

MCA chairman Peter Johnston said the industry must resist compounding the negative sentiment being generated by the end of the mining investment boom, lest it put an artificial brake on investment.